Five Games to Get You in the Mood for Summer!

If you all missed it, today is the first day of Summer! I know as gamers, the stereotype is that we don’t get out of the house much and rarely see the sun, but I’m sure that’s not true in many cases, right? C’mon, prove them wrong! To ramp up for the Summer, what better way to get in the mood than to play some videogames? I’ve come up with a random smattering of games that have aspects that remind me of Summer, tropical weather and just general having a good time at the beach.

So, without rambling on any further, hit the break to check out several games that I thought of when I think of Summer. Perhaps you have your own to share in the comments?

Star Tropics (NES)
This one goes waaaay back, but it’s one of my most vivid memories of playing games on the NES when I was but a wee lad, in our living room with the windows open, the Summer breeze on my face. For those of you unfamiliar, Star Tropics sees you adventuring around tropical islands with protagonist Mike Jones. It’s filled with palm trees, hidden caves, scenic beaches and a lot of yo-yo action. Seriously, the dude’s initial weapon was a yo-yo.

Star Tropics is probably pretty tough to get your hands on these days, but it is actually the first game that popped into my mind when I thought of Summer and balmy weather. When are we going to see a remake of this, I wonder?

Tropico 3 (PC)
Continuing on with that “tropical island” feel, we’ll hop on over to Tropico, where you can fulfill all your dictatorial desires by taking out your frustrations on your loyal citizens. They just so happen to be on a tropical island somewhere, possibly in a fictional Caribbean. I’d like to be on a nice Jamaican beach, sipping on some sort of mixed rum drink encased in a coconut cup with a little umbrella sticking out the top, wasting the time away basking in the sun. And, you know, order people around and such.

Final Fantasy X (PS2)
Shifting gears a bit, I threw Final Fantasy X in here because, well, it’s Final Fantasy. But also because many areas in this game in particular seem to have a breezy, seaside, Summer-y feel to them. From the beaches of Besaid to the shore-side town of Luca to the prominent side-quest/mini-game of blitzball. I mean, c’mon, even one of the main characters has a Jamaican-sounding accent. You can’t beat that, mon.

Dead or Alive: Extreme Beach Vollyball (Xbox)
What goes together better than beaches and hot digital girls in bikinis? Oh, wait…probably beaches and hot REAL girls in bikinis, but that’s beside the point. If you’re in the middle of frakking nowhere like I am, with nothing but land for a thousand miles in every direction, perhaps a digital beach with fake bikini girls and simulated breast physics is the way to go? I won’t judge if you don’t.

Lemonade Tycoon (PC, mobile devices)
My family and I used to always go to a theme park in Des Moines called Adventureland during the Summer months, once all us kids were out of school. One of the best things we would get there is fresh-squeezed lemonade. That memory is yet to be replicated anywhere else. But, if you want to take a stab at making your own awesome blend of citrus goodness, you may want to look into running a digital lemonade stand in Lemonade Tycoon. Then you’ll be the expert and you can go tell that annoying neighbor girl across the street what’s up.

And there you have it, folks. Those are a few games I thought of when I thought of Summer, vacations, tropical venues and warm weather. How about you, do you have any other titles that may get people in the mood for Summer? Drop them in the comments below!

Chad joined the DualShockers staff in mid 2009 and since then has put much of his time into covering RPGs, with a focus on the Japanese side of the genre, from the obscure to the mainstream. He's a huge fan of iconic games like Secret of Mana, Final Fantasy VI and Persona 4 yet enjoys the smaller niche titles, as well. In his spare time he enjoys experiencing new beer, new foods and keeping up with just about every sci-fi show on television. He's married to an intelligent, beautiful Southern Belle who keeps his life interesting with witty banter and spicy Cajun cooking.